The spinnaker is a sail which many misunderstand, and few master. In this blog we show that it isn’t a black magic sail and you don’t need a doctorate to appreciate what it can do. The blog is written at what seems like a basic level. All we can say is that speed is basic, whether its advanced or beginning - the same rules apply.
When we talk sailing, too often people will claim that its primarily a mental game - a game of chess on water which leads to winning. We do not believe this. We believe that first ingredient to success is to have among the best technical and tactical knowledge that you can get, and then the mental game kicks in. This blog is about the mental game and more importantly its development from the start of racing careers.
Positive Sailing We often talk about “staying positive”, surrounding ourselves with “positive people” and using “positive energy” to boost our results or gain the winning edge. Very often this is then left to the sailor, no matter how young or inexperienced, to get their own vision of what “positive” may be - often the... Continue Reading →
420 Dynamic Sailing As previously discussed, at Toplevel Sailing, throughout our sail coaching sessions, we believe and encourage our sailors to adopt a dynamic sailing approach in order to maintain speed. In double handed dinghies (in this example the 420) the boat will be limited by the collapsing kite going downwind. So the question will... Continue Reading →
There is no secret... The secret to being fast is to never go slow, during our sail coaching sessions we encourage our sailors to adopt a dynamic sailing approach. We are discussing the effective and legal way to propel the boat forward to increase and maintain speed. This video demonstrates the basic concept in a... Continue Reading →
De-powering a Sail Boat The question arises many times; how do we keep the boat flat when it gets windy? First, we need to discuss how to move the center of effort on the sails down to a manageable area and how to flatten the sail. The obvious answer to both is by bending the... Continue Reading →
Go fast or go home! The angle of sailing relative to the wind has a major influence on boat speed; and even more of an influence in catamarans. Faster sailing boats generate apparent wind, the faster the boat moves, the more apparent wind it will generate. Speed allows foils to work better, and consequently to... Continue Reading →
Dynamic Sailing and Bow Splashes One of the most destructive aspects to speed, in any sailing boat, is the bow splashes. This is particularly true in an optimist; more so than any other boat. Due to the shape of the optimist bow, each bow splash is equal to hitting a wall of a couple of... Continue Reading →
Dealing with wind changes Sailing is a sport of infinite variables. These variables happen both inside the sailing boat and in the weather, sea state and within the psychological factors concerning the sailing team. Few sports can have the complexity that we see in sailing due to the transient nature of “change” that we experience... Continue Reading →
The complexities of sail coaching The job of coaching sports is fun, invigorating, inspiring, and above all an opportunity for personal development of the coach due to the environment of ambition and talent in which they work. Sailing is a sport of nearly infinite variables. Within each segment of our sport we rarely get the... Continue Reading →
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